Taking the right steps to a safe garage door

If you live in a home built under the post-Hurricane Andrew building codes, you already have the right kind of garage door.

But the door won't do any good in a hurricane unless you learn how to use it.

Last hurricane season, amazingly, some of my neighbors were sitting in the garage with the door open watching the storm. Others closed their doors but never strengthened them with the vertical wind posts the builder provided. The experts we interviewed caution that installation of these windposts are essential to protect the garage from high winds.

The other important thing to remember is to disconnect the electric-powered door. Some garage doors have a vacation switch that turns off power to the door; other must be unplugged.

If you don't know how to disconnect your door's operator, Kent Severs of the Overhead Door Company in Riviera Beach suggests asking your installer now before a storm is headed toward us.

Kriste LaMay, co-owner of Broten Garage Door in Pompano Beach, says her company got a lot of calls last season from people who couldn't open their doors after the hurricanes. They tried to walk people through the directions over the phone, but in some cases they had to send a service technician to the home.

"People were upset that all the serviceman did was yank the red cord so the door could be lifted manually up and down," she says. "We were swamped and had to charge people for a service call."

Some companies also offer battery backup systems that light the garage and open and close the door up to 20 times. The cost is about $499 installed.